The Akerman Year

A monthly podcast miniseries on the work of filmmaker Chantal Akerman, hosted by Kate Rennebohm and Simon Howell.

About the show

Chantal Akerman's work stretched across mediums, formats, modes, concerns, countries, and production models, but only a handful of them have actually been seen by most cinephiles, especially in North America. In this monthly miniseries, we (Kate, Simon, and an assortment of special guests) will make a comprehensive case for Akerman as belonging on any list of the great artists of the last century -- not only for her relatively "famous" works, but also for her dozens of much-less-seen projects.

Episodes

  • Part 11: L'adaptatrice (ft. Rebecca Sheehan)

    July 26th, 2023  |  Season 1  |  2 hrs 5 mins
    chantal akerman, joseph conrad, marcel proust, podcast

    We tackle two later Akerman features that take on literary giants in typically idiosyncratic style: 2000's La Captive (Proust) and 2011's Almayer's Folly (Conrad).

  •

    Part 10: Self-portrait (ft. Patricia White)

    April 17th, 2023  |  Season 1  |  1 hr 43 mins
    chantal akerman, podcast

    Feminist film scholar Patricia White joins us for a lively run through several of Akerman's more overt attempts at self-portraiture, along with a behind-the-scenes chronicle of the making of Jeanne Dielman.

  •

    Part 9: Akerman vs. America

    November 7th, 2022  |  Season 1  |  1 hr 39 mins
    chantal akerman, documentary, podcast

    Kate and Simon journey solo through two of Akerman's thorniest documentaries, Sud and De L'autre Coté, necessarily wrangling with questions of racism, authorial intent, and documentary style along the way.

  •

    Part 8: See and don't see (ft. Alisa Lebow)

    August 6th, 2022  |  Season 1  |  2 hrs 29 mins
    chantal akerman, documentary, judaism, podcast

    We tackle some of Akerman's most tangled texts with a deep dive into some of her works that touch on themes of Jewish identity, the diaspora, Israel, and a whole lot more. Special guest Alisa Lebow joins us as we talk HISTOIRES D'AMERIQUE, DIS-MOI and 2006's LA-BAS.

  •

    Part 7: Song and dance (ft. Girish Shambu)

    July 7th, 2022  |  Season 1  |  2 hrs 12 mins
    chantal akerman, musicals, pina bausch, podcast

    The great Girish Shambu joins us to tackle a tight grouping of Akerman's most overt forays into the performing arts and the film musical: Les Annees 80, the doc One Day Pina Asked, and of course Golden Eighties.

  •

    Part 6: Have you considered analysis? (ft. Miriam Bale)

    May 5th, 2022  |  Season 1  |  1 hr 45 mins
    chantal akerman, juliette binoche, podcast, william hurt

    Another returning Lodgers veteran joins us to tackle Akerman's most overt foray into mainstream filmmaking, 1994's A Couch In New York, starring William Hurt and Juliette Binoche. While pondering its merits, we also take a look at a short made in its aftermath and a significantly earlier foray into comedy, The Man With a Suitcase (L'Homme a la Valise).

  •

    Part 5: Hot summer nights (ft. Caden Mark Gardner)

    April 1st, 2022  |  Season 1  |  1 hr 46 mins
    chantal akerman, nuit et jour, toute une nuit

    Two very different Akerman features linked by heat, humidity, and the uncertain whims of love are on the docket this week, as guest Caden Mark Gardner joins us to talk 1982's Toute Une Nuit and 1993's Nuit Et Jour.

  •

    Part 4: Placement and displacement (ft. Jessica Bardsley)

    March 1st, 2022  |  Season 1  |  2 hrs 11 mins
    aurore clement, chantal akerman, podcast

    Another Lodgers alumnus joins us to tackle two of Akerman's best-loved features, Les rendez-vous d'Anna and D'Est, along with the hilarious, underseen short Family Business.

  • Part 3: in correspondence (ft. Lakshmi Padmanabhan)

    February 1st, 2022  |  Season 1  |  1 hr 45 mins
    babette mangolte, chantal akerman, letters home, news from home, sylvia plath

    Two Akerman features a decade apart offer very different takes on distance, maternal love, and the act of letter writing: 1976's News From Home and 1986's Letters Home.

  •

    Part 2: Unsimulated eating, unsimulated sex (ft. Erin Nunoda)

    December 28th, 2021  |  Season 1  |  1 hr 57 mins
    chantal akerman, cinema, film

    This month we abandon chronology and careen through various phases of Akerman's career, linking together a few of her variously autobiographical self-portraits and concept exercises, including her first feature Je Tu Il Elle and 60-minute wonder Portrait d'une jeune fille de la fin des années 60 à Bruxelles.

  •

    Part 1: Domestic orders (ft. Justine Smith)

    November 8th, 2021  |  Season 1  |  1 hr 55 mins
    chantal akerman

    Kate, Simon and special guest Justine Smith discuss Akerman's most widely seen film, but not before tackling the earlier work that gave her the tools to pull it off.

  •

    Part 0: Blow up this town

    November 5th, 2021  |  Season 1  |  30 mins 37 secs
    saute ma ville

    Kate and Simon introduce the subject of this miniseries, and Chantal Akerman introduces herself to the world with her incendiary first film.